Hey Ive been wondering if anyone has any problem solving ideas to fit a 275 front tire on a 64-65? Im starting to think that I may want a wider front wheel compared to the rear and that would require alot of work.

The only way I can think of is to reduce turning radius with steering stops but that make the car fairly undrivable on the street.

Just wondering if anyone has found a good way to fit a wider tire on the front of the early A bodies without flares and alot of offset.

Interesting, iŽll be watching this. I like the big tire in front look, big rim in front - not so much. I`m a rubber man, oops that came out pretty wrong.

It will be a tight fit, a 275 fits on the front of my 67 with not much room to spare. It's on a 9" wide wheel with 5" bs. I think the max back space I can get is 6", even then its close to the upper ball joint and control arm (when turning). I did have to modify the inner fender and fender lip for clearance.

Hey Ive been wondering if anyone has any problem solving ideas to fit a 275 front tire on a 64-65? Im starting to think that I may want a wider front wheel compared to the rear and that would require alot of work.

The only way I can think of is to reduce turning radius with steering stops but that make the car fairly undrivable on the street.

Just wondering if anyone has found a good way to fit a wider tire on the front of the early A bodies without flares and alot of offset.


A 255 is probably about as wide as you can w/o major mods.

It will be a tight fit, a 275 fits on the front of my 67 with not much room to spare. It's on a 9" wide wheel with 5" bs. I think the max back space I can get is 6", even then its close to the upper ball joint and control arm (when turning). I did have to modify the inner fender and fender lip for clearance.

Is a 64/65 that much different than 66/67 in the front?

I fit 275/40-17 on 17x9.5 rims with 6" BS (C5 Vette brakes and a thin spacer, so really like 5.75" BS)... No major problems ( might have rubber the sway bar at near full look, but you rarely get that far on the street...)

Is a 64/65 that much different than 66/67 in the front?

I fit 275/40-17 on 17x9.5 rims with 6" BS (C5 Vette brakes and a thin spacer, so really like 5.75" BS)... No major problems ( might have rubber the sway bar at near full look, but you rarely get that far on the street...)

I forgot to add that I have the SC&C stage II setup which puts the upper ball joint a bit higher up and closer to the wheel. 6" bs may work but it is close.

thanks for the replies. To the best of my knowledge the 64-65's just have narrower wheel wells all the way around compared to later vehicles. From what I understand, even though the frame is interchangeable the body gained a bit of width as time went on allowing for more tire.

As far as my setup is concerned, I have the SCC stg2+ as well. Wheel is Boze Mesh, 17"D and the overall width from outer lip to lip is 8", 4.5" BS. I was planning on either a 245 or 255 but really want a 275.

What I dont want is to have to make 6 point u-turns or rub off the sidewall if Im in a corner and hit a small divit in the road. The setup will also need to work on the Andretti hairpin at Laguna Seca and the Carousel at Sears Point (also known as Infineon bleh). Both of these turns require a good deal of lock to apex and thats where not only the tires become important from a size aspect since you can not only turn in faster you can also brake later as well.

I suppose if worst comes to worst a liberal helping of fender flaring tool will give me enough to keep rubbing to an absolute minimum.

I run 18x8 with 5 inch back spacing and a 245/40/18 tire and have lots of clearance on 65's. I would think it is just a matter of how much clearance you have to the ball joint/spindle. I've put 20x8.5 with 255 on the front before with 5.5 inch back spacing using stock spindles. The bigger the diameter of the wheel also helps clear the balljoint/control arm.

I think its gonna be a balancing act as well as what tire in particular I decide to go with. Considering my less that final choice on a tire as Ive sold two sets that I never mounted, itll take some tire store measuring to figure out whatll work best.

What I mean by that is different manufactures tend to run wider than others, some by a fairly considerable amount. Find the widest tread width while maintaining a thin overall width is gonna be tricky.

Im curious if anyone knows of a database of sorts for the real world measurements of different popular tires? Blindly choosing $200 tires hoping one will fit better than the next is not a proposition I can afford. Its also very tough to trust the manufacturers measurements unless you are running exactly the same wheel as they are.

I think tirerack.com has the manufacturers specifications when you pick the size you want. They do vary.

Go to bfgoodrichtires.com and you can get all the tire sizes you need.

You want an idea, here you go... brace yourself, I'm thinking outside the box here.

If I had to guess, I would say the 1964 Nova or Chevy II is narrower than the 1964 Chevelle. 2-4 inchins narrower? Use the front frame, suspension, swaybars ect. from a Nova / Chevy II on your Chevelle. You just need to get the Radiator Supports, Bumper Support and Inner Fender Wells to work out. You would gain 1-2 inches per side. Your next problem would be finding the right 10" wide rim and tire.

wow no offense but thats a huge step in the wrong direction. I cant imagine putting the strut supension from a Chevy 2 into a car with a far superior double a arm suspension. If I was going to that extent I would just build a new stub and build a custom suspension that is better than stock.

As far as the manufacturers numbers are concerned, Ive noticed that actual CARCASS width varies widely among manufacturers. They list tread width only, not carcass width on their chosen wheel. This cause an issue since some tires are less wide than other of the same size due to a straighter sidewall. This means two different 275s could be over 2" different at the sidewall. Ive seen it personally at is astonishing the difference between makes.

On tirerack.com you put in the size of the tire you want, when that page appears you click on the tire you want to look at and at the bottom of that page SPEC gets clicked on. The SPEC page for that tire will tell you tread width and section width and the rim used for measuring. Hope that helps.